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Show Monday. December 24 1979 THE HERALD, Provo, Utah—Page 15 Opinions: at What the Herald thinks, what the columnists say and what our readers think Letters to The Herald Sonia Chose False Word Editor, Herald Tam convertto the LDS church and chose to follow a prophet. In answerto Adrienne Morris and Tina Howard's letters of Dec. 13, the principle of free agency needs explaining It’s a catchy phrase used regular- ly by those ignorantof the peincieal to justify unrighteousness; for example the raving over R-rated movies. Free agency is a principle of righteousness We remain free only when we choose to keep a commandment. It is never freedom to sin. Sin is not free. If we repent, Jesus’ sacrifice ls the price for thatsin, and what a price he paid. If we do not repent, we paythe price. Something that has a price, repentanceaere i not free even e choice is still there. The closer we moveon a line toward Satan,the more he wraps his chains around us, and the more welose our agency. A person completely bound by sin is nolonger a free agent. The Lord gaveus the freedom to choose, but we keep our agency only if we choose righteousness. Sonia Johnson was free to support ERA.The church did not take that Tight from her, nor would it. She is still free to support ERA. But she also chose to intrude ERAinto the church and to preach falsedoctrine. No one hasthe right, as a member of this church to preach false doctrine. The church is not a {tical organization, where we vote on what is or is not doctrine. Truth is eternal whether we choose to believe or not. Wedovote to sustain our leaders and follow their direction. We sustain the prophet yearly by individual vote with the it to give guidance even if it concerns political opinion, when he deems necessary. Then we use our agency to follow or not. Sonia went out bounds when shetried to counselthe prophet. Wedid not vote togive her thatright. She chose not to repent for the choices she had made and was excommunicated. ERA wasnotthe real issue, though she would like the world to believe it. Whatgood is the prophetto usif we do not heed his councel? A prophet is also a seer. He can see future events. Sonia obviously can not. She was led very carefully to destruction in an eternal sense. | grieve for her. She, like so many others, was deceived. Her wisdom failed to show her that her choices were leading to excommunication Does she have the insight to see — ERA will lead this nation? For a temporary, temporal, narTow spectrum political belief she has lost her eternal blessings, because she let it take precedence over eternal principles and the church's line of authority. I know her excommunication will put things into proper perspective for others who mayhavebelieved her false religious teachings, and I am notreferring to ERA perse. Her reoccupation with ERA induced ler to teach warped and perfidious doctrine. Mrs. Morris and Ms. Howard, you have little comprehension of the Tealissue as regards to the church's Teasons to excommunicate her, and I am indignant over yourcriticism of the leaders of the church for their Tight to protect the members of the church from teachers and preachers of false doctrine who are in your words Ms. Morris in open ‘‘opposition to authority.”” You criticize oppose Sonia. I do and many other women in our church do. I oppose her for her open rebellion against authority, for taking upon herself authority we did notgive her,for using other ‘“‘Mormon’’ sisters, just because they were Mormon. ‘The church did not persecute her, they excommunicated her. As for “barbaric concepts” and “male supremacy,” the general authorities do not claim to be supreme. Our Savior and Our Father in Heaven are. Do you question that? The general authorities are placed in positions of authority by the Savior with our sustaining vote to serveallof us. Thatis the waytit is. ra Woolf 164 W. 1300 N. Orem LDS Critics Miss Point Editor, Herald: Well here we go again?! The antiMormons have again found a cause celebre with which to attack the church. a It is amazing the amountof antiMormon propaganda which has accumulated since Joseph Smith's first vision. Go to the library and ‘ou will find shelves of it. arkably, no other church has had so much opposition, even the Catholics. Mostoftheseletters, essays, articles, books, and even TV programs use the samebasic technique. They either ignore or scoff at the truth, and then set up a dummy case based on falsehood. Then they beat the dummy to death and suppose they are helping to destroy the church. This, from a Latter-day Saint point-of-view is good. Few young le in the church have had to suffer the sting of persecution. ‘The Sonia Johnson case will serve to stiffen their spines and Strengthen their testimonies. Most detractors of the church do as Mr. (Mrs.?) Morris did in his Dec. 18 letter to the Herald. In irritation he brushes away the real cause of Ms. Johnson's excommunication, and he sets up a false reason—the idea that somehow the church is taking away her constitutlonal right of free speech. Nothingof the sort was intended. She is perfectly free to go ahead and say anything she wants to. However,if she breaks the rules in hertalk, she mustsuffer the consequences. This prinicple ought not to be strange to any Americancitizen. In civillife, ‘for example, we constantly have cases of slander and Ubel which are, if proved, rather severely the courts. Cer- tainly t the person's rights under the first amendment. Such judgements say to all citizens thatthe right of free speech is not absolute; rather, it is strictly limited. Every citizen in the United States must accept respons for what he says.If he violates the law in 'the exercise of his free speech, heis culpable. It seems strange that Ms. Johnson can play so innocent and abused if she has been in the church aslong as she says she has. She certainly knows the rules of the game through her long experience in the church. She must know the promises she made when she was baptized. She certainly knows that there are certain vows and promises which restrict her actions in the church. If she has been through the temple, she must know the questions which the Bishop asks herbefore she can be recommended to the temple.If anti-Mormons object to these restrictions, so be it. But Ms. Johnson ought not to complain, because she undertook these convenants willingly and of her own free will and choice. She ought not to whimper because therules of the game cuaght up with her. Probably anti-Mormons will never be able to understand fully why Ms. Johnson was excommunicated. If they do not believe that Joseph Smith wasa prophet; if they do notbelieve that the series of men who have headed the church since his time are prophets; if they cannot believe in revelation—that God indeed reveals importantprinciples and instructions to his people through his prophets; if they cannot understand that theofficials of the church are by revelatios Denrict 6, Engineer's Office 25 North 900 West Orem, Utah 84057 Gentlemen: Please don't mistake our silence for indifference in retereice to the on project. Pome peop! ave ea pacified into thinking we're in for a few improvements the canyon such as ing the road and straightening cut a few curves. Broadsides Santa By BEN HANSEN Herald Managing Editor Dear Santa, I’m much older than most of the people who write you, and my Christmas list might be a little more demanding to you, but I hope you'll give it your best. First, I knowit’s only the latest of a long chain of manifestations of the human animal’s inability to live up to its best poten- tial, but hope you will see to it that the 50 Americans being detained in the U.S. Embassyin Iran are able to come homesafeto their families and loved ones. Perhaps if the world saw your good workin this mat- baghcarnnybee mS jkr case are le, never upderstand’why Me. Johnson was excommunicated. Perhaps the detractors in the United States and elsewhere would benefit if they studied the principles of the gospel rather than taking pot shots at the church because oftheir own ignorance and misconceptions of the case. If the church is the colossal, mysterious, dominating organization which opponents claim it to be, why don’t they congratulate Ms. Johnson on her excommunication? Wouldn't she be betteroft outsideof such a horrible organization than in it? Wilford D. Lee 874 N. 580 E. Provo Recent scrutiny by concerned citizens has uncovered the fact that the present plan will neither preserve nature orlives. Please inform usas to how we can be actively involved in your decisions. We don’t want to be accomplices in your turning our magnificent legacy into a concrete monsterof regrets. Sincerely, Judy Canaan 4198 Crestview Avenue Provo Gets a Big Order themselves. Secondly, it would be nice if you could bring everyone in the world a healthy dose of tolerance for the political, religious and social philosophies of others. Our creator gave us a world full of complexity and variety in which the answer to one person’s challenges in coping with life may not work for others, If each of us were given the capacity to be more concerned aboutputting our own lives in order rather than using force to impose our ideas on others or persecuting those who have found other answers to the same questions, it would be a much more ter place to live, work and rear our families. Let each of us recognize that the blessings we enjoy in our community — its schools,its culturalinstitutions, oe its programs we are faced at every turn with constraints which tend to force us into mediocrity, give us all the will to fight past the government regulations and other vestiges of in- tunate andthe qualityofits government — depend on to allow each of us to realize the fulfillment of knowing that we have beyond the territory where all the others travel to find excellence in our work, our religious life, our families and our communities. I know you have a long for helping the less forsome people being willing to put in more thanBat their hours on the job. They depend on people taking the trouble to inform themselves about the issues and candidates in election campaigns and on resShea the to give substance and meaning to their conclusions. They deas well on each of us someoutlet in making our community better, ter the other people in the world who still don’t recognize every human be- peaceful world. Third, please bring usall a greater sense of the obligation eachof us has to not only for ourselves and fellow residents but also for those who will come rsonal freedom would make our community, whereverit maybe,a bet- after us. Finally, in an age when ing’s right to dignity and ve to take a new look at stitutionalized paternalism way to go tonight and many stops to make. You probably won’t be able even to gather up all the items I ask for let alone deliver them in the time ‘ou have. But theyall are so well worth having, that I’m willing to wait howeverlongit takes. Have a Merry Christmas. Robert J. Wagman Bill’s Failure Could Hurt Ted bal Bip wil is, tk stakepath president, and the General Authorities People WantVoice rtment ol Highs ways Departmentof ETTA come WORTH STARTELEGRAM. HULME NEA, 19 WASHINGTON (NEA) — Sen. Edward M. Kennedy is about to suffer another major setback in his bid to unseat Jimmy Carter. The Massachusetts Democrathas been making a big thing of Carter's lack of effective . For its part, the White House has been attacking Kennedy's Senate record, ayy the Bay ‘Siater has accomplished little in his 17 years in the upper house. And it has been inting out that the man who se) will make a better leader for Free World was tossed out of the Senate's No. 2 leadership position, that of majority whip, because he failed to do an even ble job of steering legislation t Kennedy hoped to counterthis argument with a glowing record as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, a post he took over in January. Specifically, he had hoped to pointto his success in gerting a consumer-orlented bill ae own committee as proof of his leadership abilities. 1977 ruled that consumers cannot bring such suits under current law. headed for the legislative junkyard and the White House is gearing up to turn Kennedy's failure into a club with which to hammerits point home. Kennedy's bill would allow consumers to sue corporations for price fixing. The Supreme Court in a ig thing the bill, calling it his first major initlative as Jude chairman. And he sald he hoped win quick approvalfor it. That bill, however, appears It hasn't worked out that way, The Lighter Side A Yule Poem to End All Verses By DICK WEST WASHINGTON (UPI) — A Christmas poem to end all ‘hristmas poems,or at least to include most of them: Bright. White. Light. Nit Snow. Aglow. Mistletoe. Ho-ho-ho Excelsis Deo. Eastern Star. Melchoir, Balthasar and Gaspar. Star of East, Prince of Peace. Shepherdly abidings. Good 8. Great joy. New toy, Little drummer boy. Magi. Loud tle. Pumpkin pie. Yuletide. Sleight ride. Yuletide carol. Gay apparel. Geese a-laying. Santa sleighing. Sleigh bells jingle. Kris le. Reindeer. cheer. ight clear. Mail order catalog. Egg nog. Bethlehem. Tiny Tim. Swams a-swimming. Tree trimming. Bear tree, Nativity. Wethree kings.Five gold rings. Santa, Hosanna. Noel,Silver bell. Immanuel. All hail. Wassail. Fruitcake. Suzy Snowflake. Newborn child. Mercy mild. Frankincense. Ornaments. Angelic host. Marley's ghost. Stocking treat. NutcrackerSuite. Peace on Earth. Virgin birth. Savingp club. HENS Bah. Handel's ‘‘Messiah.” Jolly. Dolly. Boughsof holly. Candy cane. Jack Frost painting on the windowpane. Satin bows. Jack Frost nipping at your nose. Christmas gift. Do not open until Shopping hint. Chimneydescent. Shopping lists. Slit wrists. Deck the halls. Popcorn balls. 0,come let us adore. Department store. Gift wrap. Long winter's nap. Chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Mormon Tabernacle Choir. See the blazing Yule before us. Hallelujah Chorus. Sugarplums. Drumming drums. ir, i All is cain Tannenbaum. Harps of gold. North Pole. cresting cards. Leaping lords. Crowded inn. French hen. Save from sia. Amen. : |